Australia's Future Fund has emerged as the surprise lead investor in a major capital raise by US big data firm MapR.

Earlier this month Victoria's financial watchdog issued another scathing report on six information communications technology (ICT) projects in the public sector.

Acting Auditor-General Peter Frost said weaknesses in planning and implementation meant projects were often cancelled before completion while still "incurring significant costs".

Now the Andrews government says it is introducing changes to improve management of ICT systems.

A spokesman said the government had "bolstered the rules" for commissioning ICT systems, and will increase the use of independent experts to monitor projects.

Advertisement

The list of costly projects includes the bungled $240 million Ultranet system for schools that was supposed to be used extensively by parents, teachers and students.

The government pulled the plug on the project in 2014 after only a handful of schools adopted it and it has sincebeen the recent focus of an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission inquiry.

A doomed $62 million ICT system commissioned by the Department of Justice is among the latest projects that failed to launch.

The Age can also reveal the former Department of Primary Industries spent about $25 million on an online project known as the Resource Rights Allocation and Management system.

It was used for just two years before another $3 million was spent to make it compatible with cloud technology.

RMIT computer science expert Andy Song said government IT projects were vulnerable to a range of problems, including mid-project leadership changes.

"A change of management can bring a disastrous result," he said.

Dr Song said IT projects were expensive but could fast become obsolete as new technology takes over.

The HealthSMART system was another expensive project that was supposed to link hospital computer networks and data but was widely criticised for its limited application.

Some estimates have placed its price at $360 million or higher but the Health Department insisted its total capital cost was $329.4 million.

The Link database created for Victoria Police at a cost of more than $100 million also failed to launch.

And VicRoads has, since 2008, spent $112 million on its RandL but never implemented it.

VicRoads executive director of registration and licensing Barbara Flett confirmed the RandL program was supposed to upgrade Victoria's registration and licensing system. However, RandL was suspended in 2014 while it was reviewed and VicRoads decided not to continue the project "in its current form".

These projects do not include other massive blowouts including the myki ticketing system that is now widely used but overran its budget by more than $500 million.

In recent years both the auditor-general and ombudsman have issued numerous warnings about the handling of these systems and the need to improve procurement processes.